October 1st White Plains Card Show Recap! Part 4!

Hey guys, Drew back here. So, there was one main reason I went to this October card show. Had I not been born and raised a giant Jets fan, there wouldn't have been much of a point in going to the show. However, JP's Sports hooked us Jets fans up with a sweet addition to the lineup. Time to reflect on an amazing experience!

PART 4:

THE NEW YORK 

SACK EXCHANGE!

My dad grew up around the Jets, but was a little young during their Super Bowl winning season. What he remembers most from his younger years was this late 1970's- early 1980's Jets defensive line, consisting of: Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons, Abdul Salaam, and Mark Gastineau! Klecko was Dad's all time favorite football player and he and I were both extremely excited to have the opportunity to meet him!

The players stalled 45 minutes before they came out to sign, so Dad held my spot in line while I went and bought a few things, including a holder for the football I planned to have the 4 of them sign! When we came closer to the front of the line, we realized there was one free inscription. Rather than doing something original, Dad looked up the Sack Exchange's best season, 1981. You'll see what the inscriptions are very soon.

The first player we met was Dad's favorite, Joe Klecko. Klecko was an above average defensive lineman throughout his day, and could be considered the best player among the four we met that day. He made 3 Pro Bowl teams, and was the second player ever to be elected into the Pro Bowl in 3 different positions. Many former players argue Klecko should have been considered more for the Hall of Fame, and the Jets honored him as the 3rd retired number in Jets history early last season. Dad had a blast getting to meet him, as he was a very nice guy, getting a picture with us and signing our football with the inscription we asked him to do. 

Next up was Marty Lyons, who was the Jets first round pick in the 1979 NFL Draft. He was a fairly decent player during his career, and was known for some pretty dirty plays, especially "giving the business" to Jim Kelly (see below)! Lyons was a really nice guy and talked about some of his charity golf tournaments to us. He kindly posed for a photo and gave us the inscription we asked for.

 

The third of the four players we met was Abdul Salaam. There isn't too much to say about Salaam other than he was a big guy and I think he may have tied Dwight Gooden for the record for biggest hand I've ever shaken in my life. He changed his name from "Larry Faulk" to Abdul Salaam early in his career because his new name meant "servant of peace", and he wanted to be known as a peaceful man. Like the other two, Salaam was a great guy and after noticing we forgot to ask for an inscription, we went back and he added that in for us before we walked away without it, which I thought was really cool of him.

The final member of the Sack Exchange was Mark Gastineau. If there was any competition between who was the top guy of the line, Klecko's biggest threat was Gastineau. Recently, the NFL Network ranked him as the 8th greatest pass rusher of all time. His 107 career sacks is a Jets record to this day, as well as his single season sack record of 22. Among his other accomplishments were his 5 straight Pro Bowl selections, as well as winning the Pro Bowl MVP in 1984. He was the most popular of the Sack Exchange, and here is a basic summary of his career:

He was always known as a tough guy, having been arrested for domestic violence and drug issues in the past. But, boy had he changed when we met him. He now is apparently a major believer in his religion, and considers himself a changed man. Dad told him all about my grades in school and my accomplishments, and Gastineau asked me if I played any sports. I told him I play 3rd base for my school baseball team, and he asked what was more important, sports or schoolwork. I said "School I guess" and he said "You don't guess, school IS the number one focus". He was such a down to Earth and nice guy, and was my favorite of the four we met just because he took his time out to talk to us. Plus, that picture with him tucking my Dad basically under his armpit because my Dad is so short is a memorable one for sure!

On to the autographs! I found this unopened football laying around in my closet just before the show, and I thought it would be neat to add a signed football to my collection. So, I took the ball, and got all four of the players to sign it! 

The unique part about the ball is that I got all 4 of them to inscribe their sack totals from the 1981 season, in which the Jets had a total of 66 sacks, with a whopping 53.5 of them coming from the Sack Exchange!

Klecko

Lyons

Salaam (photo won't rotate for some reason)

Gastineau

I thought it came out great in all! Now, the only question is what I should do with it! All in all, the Sack Exchange really was an exciting part of a good Jets team. They brought the team back to the playoffs for the first time since their Super Bowl winning season of 1969, and while they never won they certainly displayed a hard nosed way to play football!

What do you guys think of the ball? See Ya!

Some Recent Mailbox Love

Hey guys, Drew back here. I am starting to fall a little behind but I'm in decent shape right now. By the way, I got an RTS from Phil Coke yesterday, wrong address, my bad. I'll try him again during the season. Anyway, got 3 packages to share with you, the first is courtesy of William from foul bunt. This guy is one of the best guys I've met on this blog journey, he and I have made several trades and have talked quite a bit through email. He invited me into his fantasy team and sent me an extremely long email about not making the team. He sent me some cards out of kindness and I got them yesterday. Here they are:

Here we have some nice oddballs from 1995 of Whitey Ford and Reggie Jackson. Never seen them before and they look cool. Next is a cool looking hologram followed by a 1990 Fleer Dave Winfield. I love the shot on that card and is a favorite in my Winfield catalog. On the bottom row, we have a 2009 Unique Teixeira, I have the red parallel and now the base as well. Lastly, 3 2010 Upper Decks, a Melky base, a Burnett Biography, and a Cano biography that I needed for the PC.

In this group we have 2 1990 Topps, Winfield and Bucky Dent, and 3 1986 All Stars, Winfield, Mattingly, and Guidry. I needed the Mattingly so that's awesome. The last one in this group was a 1990 Score Bernie rookie card. This is a nice shot though I would've preferred a braces shot, it cracks me up to see him in braces when he was a rookie. That is a nice card no doubt!

And finally, here are a bunch of 1998 Topps from a recent break. I don't think I had one single card from this set beforehand, so a chunk of Yanks is nice. The Pettitte is my favorite with the Tino and Jeter at a close second.

Thanks so much William! On to the next one...

Another Sports Card Forum trade! This one landing me a few Kleckos and Namaths, as well as a few Mattinglys. The upper left Namath is my favorite of the bunch, the picture is amazing! I also like the Post Mattingly. Thanks SCF dude!

And since I should be going to bed and in a rush, here's the last package I'll show ya, a very special one from today.

Yep, that is a 2009 Topps Tribute jersey card of Whitey Ford. I know you're oooowing and aaahing at it right now so I'll let you look at it for a sec.

Ok, there. Now read. I got this for $7.00 plus $3.00 shipping on eBay. 10 bucks for a Whitey Ford jersey /99 from a $50 per pack product? Crazy, but true. This is a sweet card to add to the collection and I'm glad to have it. There is a small hint of a pinstripe too so that's a bonus!

All right, going to bed now zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ See Ya!

Sports Card Forum Mail

Hey guys, Drew back here, with the next of 7 owed mailday posts, the second one. I have a 2 hour delay for school as it's snowing (again!), and at this point I'm sick of this and just wanna get spring underway. Anyway, the next package, the smallest one, was from the Sports Card Forum, which I have now traded 9 times I think. I traded my duplicate Cotchery auto from Philadelphia for these 2 Jets cards:

2008 Donruss Threads Century Collection Materials Joe Klecko Relic /250
This card is sweet! I love the vintage relic on the card, and I now only need a rookie card for the trifecta for Klecko! He is my dad's All Time favorite football player, so he really likes the auto and game used I picked up of him.

2008 Upper Deck Icons Rookie Brilliance Dustin Keller /99
Unfortunately this is from the Rookie Premiere, which I absolutely hate, but it has a cool design and is numbered to 99. One of the reasons I don't buy much football is due to every product having these cards. Dustin Keller is a great young player and I have quite a few nice cards of his, now just need an auto!

See Ya!

Catching Up, Mail, & Other Forms of Card Related Material

Hey guys, Drew back here, and after a long and exhausting week of doctors appointments, after school activities (track), and tests galore I finally am done. Tomorrow is the big day, certainly can't wait to go meet Mr. Mattingly and spend over 100 bucks on packs and singles. Life is Good! Anyway, time to finish my catching up. I won a contest over at Baseball Card Stuff recently, unfortunately since he is a new blogger, I was the only person to enter. I wanted him to redo it and have me give him a shoutout but he said no, and he sent me the cards. Also, I still didn't post some of the singles dad got me for Christmas, there were some awesome ones. Lastly, since dad went down for a week in North Carolina for a family matter, one of his relatives gave me some old cards! All those groups I listed are in the video below, so watch it. NOW!!!

PLEASE CHECK OUT BASEBALL CARD STUFF!!!!!

Thanks again to all of you in that video. Next we have a couple cards I bought off Check Out My Cards, my second purchase off the site so far, and a third one is in the process. Yes, go to that website, but, please ask permission to buy Cano or Swisher cards for yourselves, :). Here's what I got (btw, I also purchased some cards for a few others, if you've seen some cards of mine on other blogs lately):

2009 Allen & Ginter Black Border Cano
This is a really nice card, and I'm making progress towards that 2009 Allen & Ginter rainbow, still need the mini, A&G Back, and no numbered card /99. Maybe that will change by the end of tomorrow.


2007 UD Masterpieces Yogi Berra/Jackie Robinson
Yes! This is the LAST card I need for the 2007 Masterpieces set! And what an awesome set this is! In my opinion the best designed card set of the 2000's, Allen & Ginter in second. And this is a cool card, even though Jackie really was out! Maybe some time I'll show off this set, like I did with the 08 Heroes set a while back! Remember that?


2008 Leaf Limited Joe Klecko Team Trademarks /999 Insert 2009 Donruss Gridiron Gear NFL Teams Joe Klecko Autograph /119
The 1st card is from a high end football set and isn't anything great, but it does have a good picture. Klecko was a former Pro Bowl defensive lineman, and was my dad's favorite player! When he came home from NC, he was surprised to see this! I love the autographed card because not only is it one of my fave sets over the years, but the Jets helmet is rubbery, so it's unique. Unfortunately it's a sticker auto, but I'll have to live with it.

Lastly on the agenda, some cards I got from Jeremy from "no one's going to read this blog", a very negative based title if you ask me, considering he has a good following. We recently completed a trade and shortly after I got my cards, another little package was waiting for me, and here are the goodies:

Group 1: Mixed Yanks/Jets
Some cool mixed cards from over the years, the Phil Hughes RC being my favorite, my 1st of that card. I also like those 2 Jets from Leaf Rookies and Stars 2008, very cool!


Group 2: Almost the entire 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights Yanks Team Set
I sure love the 2009 Topps base set, and I needed a good chunk of these! Sweet! I really like the Posada Season Highlights and the Mariano Rivera 500th Save card.

Group 3: Mark Teixeira Fun!
Other than the creepy "Game?Used Memorabilia" card of him and a Allen & Ginter game used from Ryan's Memorabilia, I don't have much of Teixeira. Well, until Jeremy sent me a Topps Updates & Highlights base card, the propaganda card, AND a gold card /2009! Cool.

2009 UD Rookie Premiere Shonn Greene RC
Simply. Awesome. Period. I love the photo on the card and it is I think my 4th or 5th Greene rookie. I'd like to add an auto to that list tomorrow.

Thanks Jeremy and everyone else in this long and dreary catching up post! See Ya! Wish me luck tomorrow!